Mercy & Justice Round-Up: March Edition

We’re back again this month with our Monthly Mercy & Justice Round-Up, a place we share articles, videos, and/or podcasts that have made us think lately, including content from a range of perspectives—some we agree with, others we might not.

We hope you’ll read, listen, share, learn, and grow to love others better alongside us.

• Learn more about what it’s like to be homeless in NYC through the lens of multiple families in “Homelessness, Step by Step” from the New York Times. "The desperation and embarrassment of having nowhere else to turn and the daily frustration of living with little privacy and curfews were immeasurable,” writes the author. “The joy of families moving into their own homes was palpable."
   
• In this talk, Bryan Stevenson responds to the question: How Can We Fix The American Incarceration System? Key takeaways include: Wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes in sentencing; America's failure to commit to truth and reconciliation keeps our churches and lives segregated; Proximity to poverty and injustice will shatter you—and it's necessary in order to enter into a broken community as Jesus calls us to.
   
• Renaissance Church NYC, one of our partner churches, is going through an eight-part sermon series on The Gospel & Race. Listen along to this difficult, but necessary series that delves into slavery, diversity, lament, grace, the multi-ethnic church, and privilege—all through the lens of the Gospel.
   
• "It remains to be seen whether the plan to close Rikers will come to fruition, and whether it will indeed be a step towards ending mass incarceration, or will spread the violence and indignity of incarceration from Rikers Island across the entire city." Check out this interesting look at the history of Rikers Island by Urban Omnibus following Mayor de Blasio’s announcement to close the jail complex within 10 years.
   
• The Washington Post summarizes a recent report on racial inequality this way: "In some cases, African Americans are worse off today than they were before the civil rights movement culminated in laws barring housing and voter discrimination, as well as racial segregation." For more on the black homeownership gap, see this interactive map by Urban Institute.